Indoor air pollution as an issue of nonattention in Nairobi's informal settlements

58 percent of Nairobi’s population live in slums under extremely poor and unhealthy condi-tions. In these settlements, pneumonia is one of the top causes of health issues and deaths among children and adults, for which indoor air pollution is a known contributor. Yet, the topic of indoor air pollution receives no attention. Regulatory frameworks and budgets for indoor air pollution do not exist and humanitarian organisations neglect the topic despite its drastic health effects. This paper addresses the dynamics of indoor air pollution from two sides: It investigates the underlying structural mechanisms of organisational and governmen-tal attention dynamics. It also analyses how government policies interact with these mecha-nisms and create indoor air pollution and health outcomes. We employed participatory sys-tem dynamics to investigate attention to indoor air pollution, to develop the model structure, policies and to discuss wider consequences. Participants included community members, lo-cal and central policy-makers, parastatals, NGOs and academics. Modelling suggests possi-ble avenues to improve indoor air pollution in Nairobi’s informal settlements and the partici-patory process also gave insights into their feasibility. The participatory work also somewhat helped develop attention to indoor air pollution at the local level.